


Amity Is Not Prepared

by Owl_lover



Category: The Owl House (Cartoon)
Genre: F/F, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-10
Updated: 2020-12-29
Packaged: 2021-03-10 16:55:38
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 8
Words: 11,970
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28000515
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Owl_lover/pseuds/Owl_lover
Summary: Amity wants to tell Luz how she feels about her, but only when she has a chance to plan it out and get the words exactly right.But when Luz gives Amity an especially thoughtful gift, Amity, overcome with emotion, impulsively kisses Luz on the cheek. Mortified, Amity runs away, leaving a confused Luz to try to make sense of how she feels about her friend while Amity tries to salvage what she sees as a disaster, but everything she tries seems to just make things worse.
Relationships: Amity Blight & Gus Porter, Amity Blight & Luz Noceda & Willow Park, Amity Blight & Willow Park, Amity Blight/Luz Noceda, Luz Noceda & Willow Park, Luz Noceda & Willow Park & Gus Porter
Comments: 86
Kudos: 312





	1. Chapter 1

Luz was _really_ close to her, and Amity was having a hard time concentrating on anything other than that fact.

Amity and Luz were discussing the Azura books in her little room in the library. In the enclosed space, Luz would frequently brush up against her or lean in close to show her a passage, and Amity would react predictably, her heart racing, her cheeks feeling flushed. She might’ve enjoyed it except she was worried that Luz would pick up on how she was feeling and that it would freak her out.

“So, that’s why I think Malingale and Hecate will have a big fight in the next book,” Luz said. “What do you think?”

“Yeah, when you break it down like that, it makes sense,” Amity said, smiling.

Amity had been having a pretty bad day until then, but of course Luz had cheered her up. She really needed this.

As Luz started going on about her next theory, Amity considered her relationship with Luz. In such a short time, Luz had changed her life so much. She’d changed _her_ so much. As far as she was concerned, her friendship with Luz was the best thing in her life.

But she also had romantic feelings towards Luz. She’d fantasized about romance, but only with fictional characters like Malingale. She’d never felt this way about a real person before.

“Luz,” Amity said. “I have a question. If a friend asked you out, and you didn’t want to go out with them, but they still wanted to be friends, would you be able to stay friends with them?”

“Huh? What does that have to do with Azura?”

“Nothing. I’m just curious.”

“Wait a minute,” Luz said in a teasing tone. “I think I know what this is about.”

“You do?”

Amity’s heart started racing. Why hadn’t she been more subtle?

“Someone asked you out, didn’t they?” Luz said.

Amity breathed a sigh of relief, although she still had the urge to roll her eyes at Luz’s obliviousness despite how grateful she was for it at the moment.

“So, what do you think?” Amity asked, not confirming or denying Luz’s suspicion.

“I’d definitely be friends with them, as long as that’s what they wanted.”

“And it wouldn’t make things… weird between you?”

“I guess that depends on the other person. But as long as they were OK with it and didn't do anything that crossed any boundaries, there shouldn’t be a problem.”

That made Amity feel better. It also made her wonder whether she should ask Luz out now.

But she decided against it. No, it would be better if she wrote a little note, like she’d done before Grom. That way she could get all her thoughts down and worded perfectly. The _last_ thing she wanted to do was let Luz know about her feelings towards her in some haphazard, chaotic way.

“Looks like you’ve cheered up a little,” Luz said.

“Huh?”

“You seemed like you were in a bad mood when you first got here.”

“Oh, yeah, I guess I was. I had a big fight with Ed and Em this morning.”

“About what?”

“It was about that night they came here. They still insist that spreading around my diary would’ve been the right thing to do.”

“I thought they apologized for that.”

“No, they were sorry because of what happened with Otabin, not because of the diary.” Amity sighed. “The worst part is… I’m wondering whether they might be right.”

“What? Why?”

“They said they did it because I needed to learn a lesson about treating people better. And the way I acted back then, wasn’t it true?”

“But spreading around your diary wasn’t the answer,” Luz said.

“You really think so?”

“Of course not!”

“Thanks, Luz,” Amity said.

Amity knew that what had changed the way she acted was Luz and her kindness. Not a cruel prank.

“And thanks also for stopping them that night,” Amity said. “Although, I’ve been wondering; when I got mad at you, why didn’t you _tell_ me that you were trying to _stop_ Ed and Em?”

“I don’t know,” Luz said. “I guess there have been so many times when people misunderstood what I was trying to do, and whenever I tried to explain myself, they’d ignore me or wouldn’t understand. So, I kind of gave up on trying to explain myself.”

“Oh, Luz, I’m sorry,” Amity said.

Amity wondered whether she would’ve believed Luz if she’d tried to explain things to her that night. She wasn’t sure. But she would now. She decided to say so.

“You know, if you ever do something that gets misunderstood, I’ll listen to you,” Amity said.

Luz smiled. “Thanks, Amity.” Then she gasped. “Wait a minute! I can’t believe it! I was going to give you something, but I totally forgot!”

“Really? You were going to give me something?”

“Yeah! It was after the grudgby match, but soon after that, things got so crazy that it slipped my mind.”

Luz opened her backpack to get a folder and took out a piece of paper.

“Take a look,” Luz said before handing it over to Amity.

Amity was astonished. Luz had given her a beautiful drawing of their grudgby match. Specifically, it was the moment when Amity had pushed Luz out of the way before she could get hit by Boscha. But Luz had romanticized it. In her version, Amity was holding back Boscha while Luz looked on in adoration like Amity was some kind of hero.

Amity was overcome with emotion.

“Luz…” she started before trailing off.

“Do you like it?” Luz asked.

“It’s wonderful,” Amity said. “It’s the best thing anyone’s ever given me.”

“Wow, really?” Luz said, grinning.

“Yeah,” Amity said. She couldn’t stop staring at it. “You really made me look cool in this picture.”

“Well, you are cool,” Luz said. “The way you came to my rescue on the grudgby field.”

“Oh, come on,” Amity said, blushing and looking away. “Saying I ‘came to your rescue’ is a little much.”

“You did!” Luz insisted. “Not just then, but also by playing the match in the first place. And at Grom, defending me from Grometheus. In fact, I should make a picture of you jumping out from those trees. Or maybe when you stood in front of Grom with your arms outstretched.”

“Wow, thanks Luz,” Amity said, still looking away because she was worried that she wouldn’t be able to handle her emotions if she looked at Luz at that moment.

For a while, Amity had seen things as the reverse. Luz was the one who always came to her rescue. She'd have never been able to defeat Grom without Luz. And then there was how Luz fixed things when she'd messed up Willow's brain and saved her from the greater basilisk. Luz had done so much for her, and she'd been feeling like she'd offered Luz so little in return. It was one of the reasons she'd been apprehensive about asking Luz out. But now that she knew that Luz didn't see things that way, she was overjoyed.

But she also felt a little guilty. Luz had given her this beautiful drawing for doing such a small thing for her, but she'd never shown her appreciation for everything Luz had done for her.

“Luz…” Amity started, but words failed her again. She’d write it all down in a note and give it to her. It would turn out a lot better that way.

“What?” Luz asked.

“Uh… I just wanted to say I really love this drawing. It's really thoughtful of you.”

“Thanks, Amity. Oh, did you notice Gus in the background over here?”

Luz leaned over in Amity’s direction again to point out Gus. Her hair brushed against Amity’s cheek. Now, Amity’s heart was racing. As Luz talked about her artistic process, Amity kept thinking about all the things she… really liked… about Luz, her enthusiasm, her courage. And as she thought about that, with Luz so close to her, she suddenly wondered what it would be like if she leaned over slightly and kissed Luz on the cheek.

And before she knew it, without making a conscious decision to do so, she did just that.

There was a horrible moment of silence before Luz looked at her with her brow furrowed and said, “Huh?”

Realizing what she’d done, Amity gasped, and her entire face turned red.

“Oh no!” Amity said. “I’m sorry, Luz! I didn’t mean to do that! Are you OK?”

“What? Amity, I’m fine…”

“I… I need to go! I’m really sorry.”

“Amity, wait,” Luz said.

But Amity ran away as quickly as she could without even gathering her things, leaving Luz baffled.


	2. Chapter 2

Luz left the library completely confused. She got back to the Owl House to find the kitchen and living room empty, which was lucky because she didn’t want Eda or King, let alone Lilith, to hear what she was saying. She went to the crystal ball to call up Willow.

“Hi, Luz,” Willow said. “What’s up?”

“Hi Willow,” Luz said. “Something… kind of weird happened to me today.”

“Oh? What happened?”

“Well, I was with Amity discussing the Azura books, and I guess I got too close because her lips accidentally brushed up against my cheek. What’s weird is she really freaked out when it happened and ran away. I don’t get it. It was just an accident. There was nothing for her to get so embarrassed about.”

Willow raised an eyebrow. “Luz, are you sure Amity’s lips brushed up against you by accident?”

“What do you mean?”

“I mean, I think Amity might’ve kissed you on the cheek.”

“Oh… is that common for friends to do on the Boiling Isles? Then I still don’t get why she got so embarrassed.”

Willow sighed. “Luz, that’s not something friends usually do here. I think Amity has a crush on you.”

“What? Don’t be silly.”

“Why is it silly?”

“Well… because… we’re friends… Wait, you weren’t even there. How could you know that Amity kissed me?”

“I wasn’t there, but I’ve been _pretty_ sure that she’s had a crush on you for a while now.”

“Then why didn’t you tell me?”

“I didn’t think it was my place.”

“Are you sure you’re not just imagining things?” Luz asked.

“I don’t think so. Can you really look back at the time you’ve spent with Amity and not think of any times that she’s acted flustered or blushed around you?”

“Well… yeah… but that doesn’t mean she has a crush on me. There are lots of reasons someone might act that way."

“Why are you so convinced that Amity _doesn’t_ have a crush on you?” Willow asked.

“Because… it just doesn’t seem possible. She used to hate me.”

“That was a while ago. Think of how different things are between the two of you now.”

“I don’t know…”

“OK, how about this: _if_ Amity _did_ have a crush on you, what would you want to do about it?”

“I don’t know,” Luz said.

“Well, have you ever had those kinds of feelings towards Amity?”

“No,” Luz said.

Hearing that, Willow felt terrible for Amity. She’d be heartbroken.

At least that’s what she thought until Luz added on, “I mean… I don’t think so.”

“What? Luz, what does that mean?”

“I don’t know, I guess I just never thought about it.”

As much as she liked Luz, Willow was starting to get exasperated.

“What do you think I should do?” Luz asked.

Willow groaned. “Luz, how could I possibly answer that? _You_ need to decide how you feel and what you want to do.”

Luz put her hand to her head and closed her eyes for a moment. “OK, _if_ Amity has those kinds of feelings towards me, she didn’t mean for me to find out this way. So, maybe I should just act like nothing happened.”

Willow was annoyed by the idea of everything going back under the surface, but she had to admit that Luz had a point. Maybe it would be better to let Amity save face until she was ready to admit her feelings. And it would give Luz some time to figure things out.

“OK, that makes sense,” Willow said.

“Yeah,” Luz said. “Thanks, Willow.”

* * *

Meanwhile, Amity had gone back to Blight manor and locked herself in her room. She was just glad that Ed and Em weren’t home.

What was she going to do? She’d made a complete fool of herself. What must Luz be thinking about her now?

Amity decided she needed to go talk to Luz. Running away had been completely immature. She headed over to the Owl House and dealt with Hooty’s nonsense until Luz came out.

“Hi, Amity,” Luz said, not looking her directly in the eyes.

“Luz, I’m sorry for what happened in the library.”

“Oh, don’t worry about it,” Luz said, laughing nervously. “It was my fault really.”

“It… what?” Amity had no idea what Luz was talking about. Maybe it was her “fault” for being so wonderful that Amity had fallen for her, but somehow she doubted that that’s what Luz meant.

“Yeah, I got too close to you, so your lips accidentally brushed against my cheek. It’s no big deal.”

“Oh!” Amity was puzzled. Could Luz really believe that? Maybe. It wasn’t implausible.

But what if Luz just said that because she didn’t feel the same way about her and wanted to avoid having to reject her?

Either way, Amity knew that she’d been granted a reprieve. All she had to do was say that that’s what happened, and things could go back to the way they were.

But suddenly that prospect didn’t sound so good to Amity. Even though it hadn’t happened the way she’d wanted it to happen and she’d reacted in horror at first, as she’d walked to the Owl House, there had been a slight sense of relief. She’d thought that she finally didn’t have to keep things a secret anymore. Did she really want to go back to hiding her feelings?

“Luz…” Amity said, looking askance. “I… my lips didn’t brush up against your cheek by accident. I kissed you. I’m sorry I did that so unexpectedly.”

“Oh,” Luz said. There was an awkward moment of silence.

“Luz, I’ve been having…” Amity wondered how to phrase it. “Crush” seemed too trivial. “I’ve been having romantic feelings towards you…” Amity winced. That sounded so unnatural. This was why it would’ve been better to write a note. “For a while now.”

“Oh,” Luz said.

Amity wasn’t sure what she’d expected. Maybe it would’ve been too optimistic to think Luz would say she’d been feeling the same way and wrap in her a romantic embrace, but she’d hoped for something more than this.

“That’s really flattering, Amity,” Luz said.

Amity looked at the ground. “You don’t feel the same way, do you.”

Luz didn’t say anything.

Amity felt like crying, but she kept her composure, although she still couldn’t look Luz in the eye. “Luz, even if you don’t feel the same way, do you think you might like it if we tried maybe going out on a date and… seeing what happens? If you didn’t like it, we could just go back to the way things were.”

After a moment, Luz said, “Would you be really sad if I said no?”

Amity felt her eyes starting to get watery. “I don’t want you to say yes just because you don’t want to make me sad.”

“Well… do you think I could think about it and tell you tomorrow?”

“Uh… yeah, of course! But we can still be friends no matter what you decide, right?

"Of course," Luz said.

"Good. I… I’d better get home. I’ll see you tomorrow.”

Amity turned around and left quickly, not wanting to risk Luz seeing her get emotional. She tried to console herself. Things really weren’t so bad. The important thing was that they could stay friends, wasn’t it?

But Luz had been acting so strange just now. She’d been timid, reticent, not at all how she usually acted. She was sure Luz would say no to going on a date with her. And now she felt uncomfortable around her. Why hadn't she just let Luz think the kiss had been an accident? Amity just wished things could go back to normal. She wished she could say something to make it like nothing that day had ever happened. But that was impossible.

Wait, was it? Suddenly, an idea came to Amity that would set everything right.

* * *

Meanwhile, Luz went back in the Owl House and thought about what she wanted to do. She’d fantasized about romance before. A lot, frankly. But it was usually with someone she’d just met. The idea of dating Amity had just never seemed like a possibility. What if she messed things up or did something to make Amity not like her? She called up Willow on the crystal ball again.

“Luz?” Willow said. “What’s going on?”

Luz briefly told Willow what had happened.

“So, I guess you were right,” Luz said.

“You know, in a way, I’m impressed with you, Luz.”

“Huh? Why?”

“Well, you like to make people happy. Which is great! But it made me think that if Amity ever asked you out, you might say yes whether you really wanted to go out with her or not. So, I’m glad you didn’t do that.”

“Oh.”

“So, what are you going to do?”

“I don’t know. Amity used to hate me. It took so long just to become friends with her. And I’ve never dated anyone before. What if I do something so wrong that Amity goes back to hating me?”

“That’s not going to happen, Luz.”

“How do you know?”

“Because Amity cares a lot about you. And you’d never do anything that bad. Anyway, I need to get going.”

Luz sighed. “OK, thanks, Willow.”

Luz gave it a little more thought. Did she want to date Amity? Well, now that she thought about it, Amity was really great, wasn’t she? She was a powerful witch, so driven.

And they’d been through a lot together what with their adventure on the Knee and defeating Grom. She hadn’t been able to face Grom alone, but with Amity, it had been easy. They could do things together that she could never do on her own. And now that she was looking at it in that context, that dance had been kind of romantic, hadn’t it?

And no matter how she used to act when they’d first met, Amity was really kind. Luz had seen that. It had just taken a little bit of encouragement to bring that side of her out.

Suddenly, Luz was feeling really happy. She was pretty lucky that Amity had developed a crush on her, wasn't she? It made her feel really good about herself. And if she said yes to a date, Amity would be so happy to hear that. She was looking forward to seeing that.

Once she'd decided to say yes to dating Amity, Luz got more and more excited about the idea. By the next morning, Luz couldn't wait to get to Hexside to talk to Amity. And as luck would have it, she found Amity waiting by her locker. But before Luz could let her know what she'd decided, Amity spoke.

“Luz,” Amity said. “I’m so glad I found you. You’re not going to believe what happened.”

“What?” Luz asked.

“Ed and Em played a terrible prank on me! They made an illusion of me and sent it over to you. Can you believe that? I hope the illusion didn’t do anything too weird.”

“Wait, so everything that happened yesterday… that was an illusion?” Luz asked.

“Yes!” Amity said. “What did the illusion do?”

“Well… it kissed me on the cheek–”

“Oh no!” Amity interrupted, making a big show of her surprise and outrage. “I can’t believe Ed and Em would do that! They’ve gone too far this time.”

“So… everything yesterday was just a prank that Ed and Em pulled?”

“Yeah, everything,” Amity said, looking askance. “So, everything can go back to normal, right?”

“Uh… yeah…” Luz said.

“Oh, great! Well, I’d better get to class.”

With that, Amity rushed off, satisfied. Luz had believed her. Now they could both go back to the way things were, and Luz wouldn’t be uncomfortable around her anymore.

If she’d stayed a moment longer, she might have noticed that Luz looked positively crestfallen. That was such a cruel trick for Ed and Em to pull! And just when she’d started getting excited at the thought of going out with Amity. She should’ve known better.

But really there was no reason for her to feel disappointed, right? Just the day before it had never even crossed her mind that Amity might have a crush on her or that they might date. But even as she told herself that, Luz couldn’t help but feel dismayed.


	3. Chapter 3

Distraught, Luz went over to Willow’s locker before class started.

“Hi, Luz,” Willow greeted her. “What’s wrong? You seem upset.”

Luz sighed. “I decided to try going out on a date with Amity, but it turned out it was all some joke that Ed and Em pulled.”

“What?” Willow said.

“Yeah. They made an illusion of Amity. I never even saw the real Amity yesterday. Isn’t that mean?”

Willow’s brow furrowed. “I don’t know, Luz. I know Ed and Em like to make mischief, but this sounds pretty mean for them. From what you’ve told me, they seem to like you. Why would they do that to you? And I’m sure Amity has a crush on you no matter what happened yesterday.”

“You’re just imagining things, Willow. I shouldn’t have gotten all swept up in the idea.”

“I wonder… could they have possibly done that to help Amity?”

“What? What do you mean?”

“Maybe they thought that since Amity was having trouble telling you how she felt, they’d sort of do it for her.”

“That’s ridiculous,” Luz said. But then she thought about it, and that did sound like the kind of misguided way the twins might go about trying to help their little sister if the diary incident were anything to go by.

Luz shook her head. “Either way, I’m just going to forget the whole thing ever happened.” Luz closed her eyes and rapped her knuckles on her head a few times before saying, “OK, it’s out of my head,” and smiling.

“Wow, Luz, you really don’t let anything get you down for too long.”

“Nope!” Luz said cheerfully. Or at least she looked cheerful. Truthfully, she was still upset. “Thanks for listening to all my problems, Willow. I know it must’ve been annoying.”

“Oh, don’t say that, Luz. You’re one of my best friends! I’ll always be here for you.”

Luz gave Willow a hug before they both left for class. But Willow still felt like there was something up. Then, after her first class, she happened to see Amity in the hallway and decided to go over.

At that moment, Amity was trying to console herself about the fact that there was no chance of her getting together with Luz, telling herself that now that she knew that for sure, she could move on.

“Hi, Amity,” Willow said. “Luz told me about everything that happened between the two of you.”

“She did?” Amity said, getting a little concerned.

“Yeah, she said it was all an illusion that Ed and Em made,” Willow said.

“Yeah, isn’t that rotten of them?” Amity said, playing up her indignation. She just hoped neither of them would ask Ed and Em about it. Then, she got a little red and asked, “Did she tell you _everything_ the illusion said yesterday?”

“Most of it. Luz was really upset.”

“You mean upset with Ed and Em.”

“Well, not really. It was more like she was upset that things yesterday weren’t real.”

“What? Why? I thought she’d be happy that things could be normal between us.”

“Well, she’s not,” Willow said. She wondered whether she should add that Luz actually _was_ about to say yes to dating Amity. Wouldn’t that solve everything and make both of them happy? But she decided that telling that to Amity without Luz's permission would be overstepping. “Luz was really sad. I’ve got to get to class, but I wanted to tell you that I think you should go talk to her.”

As Willow left, Amity felt terrible. The last thing she’d wanted to do was upset Luz. And she still didn’t understand why. After the morning classes, Amity went to Luz’s locker. Looking at Luz as she walked up to her, she did look sad.

“Luz,” Amity said. “Are you OK?”

“Huh? Oh Amity, I didn’t see you there!” Luz immediately tried to put on a happy face. Her smile seemed impossibly forced. “Yeah, I’m fine!”

“Luz… did what I tell you this morning upset you?”

“Let’s just move on from that,” Luz said.

Amity gasped. “It did make you upset!”

“Well… yeah, a little. But I’ll be fine. Don’t be too mad at Ed and Em.”

“But I don’t understand. Aren’t you happy that things are back to normal between us?”

Luz wasn’t sure how to answer. Knowing that Amity didn’t _really_ have any feelings towards her, she didn’t want to tell Amity that she’d actually been about to respond to the illusion’s romantic advances.

“Well, the illusion said it had a crush on me. And no one’s ever said that to me before, so I guess I was kind of flattered. I should’ve known better.” It was true, even if it wasn’t the whole truth.

“Oh, Luz, please don’t be sad,” Amity said.

“It’s OK,” Luz said.

Amity felt like kicking herself. How could she have made such a mess out of things?

“Amity,” Luz said. “Do you think anyone will ever feel that way about me?”

“Of course!” Amity said. “You’re a great person, Luz. And you’re only fourteen. There’s plenty of time for that kind of thing.”

“Yeah, I guess you’re right,” Luz said, though she still looked sad.

Amity sighed. “I’m sorry, Luz. I never meant to hurt your feelings.”

“But _you_ didn’t do anything wrong,” Luz said.

Amity couldn’t have felt any lower at that moment. At least that’s what she thought until Luz added, “I’m sorry I made you worry about me. I’ll be fine.”

Amity didn’t go to the cafeteria for lunch. She couldn’t stand the thought of eating with Luz and the others. There just had to be something she could do to make Luz feel better. Maybe she should tell Luz the truth about how she felt about her even if it meant getting rejected all over again.

But then another idea came to her. What if she could convince someone else to ask Luz out instead? That would cheer her up, right?

Amity wondered who might be make for a good prospect. Then she spotted Amelia, a green-haired witch. She was part of Boscha’s gang and a member of the grudgby team, but she was actually pretty nice when Boscha wasn’t pressuring her to behave otherwise.

“Amelia,” Amity said, walking over.

“Oh, hi, Amity,” Amelia said before looking around to make sure Boscha wasn’t around. She wouldn’t take kindly to her associating with Amity.

“Amelia, are you dating anyone right now?”

“No, why?”

“What do you think about Luz?”

“Luz? The human? I don’t know, she seems nice. And she’s pretty great at grudgby for a beginner.”

“Can you do me a favor? I want you to ask Luz out on a date.”

“What? Why?”

“Well… it’s a long story. But could you please do it for my sake? And don’t tell her I asked you to do it.”

“I don’t know,” Amelia said, her eyes shifting back and forth.

“Why not? You’re not afraid of Boscha, are you?”

“Kind of…”

“Come on! Why don’t you grow a spine and not do what Boscha tells you? If she gives you any trouble, I’ll have your back.”

"You promise?"

"Yes, absolutely."

“Well… OK.”

“Just don’t be disappointed if she says no.”

“I won’t. But I _do_ want to know why you want me to do this.”

“Well… _someone_ hurt Luz’s feelings… and this would cheer her up.”

“But what if she says yes?”

“What would be wrong with that? Luz is… she’s one of the best people I know.” Amity looked away and got softer saying that last part. “Anyone would be lucky to date her.”

“OK, I guess I could give it a try,” Amelia said.

As Amelia walked off, it finally hit Amity that she’d just set Luz, the girl she felt so strongly about, up with someone else. The thought of that made Amity feel like there was a pit in her stomach. But that wasn’t what was important; the important thing was to make Luz feel better. And that's what she'd just done. Right?


	4. Chapter 4

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I wanted to thank everyone for reading and for all your comments! Sorry I haven't responded, but I read and appreciate them all.

As she ate lunch with Willow and Gus, Luz briefly explained everything that had happened to Gus. She hadn't wanted to rehash the whole thing, but Gus had sensed that something was off and wanted to know what it was.

"Wow, Luz," Gus said. "That was really mean of Ed and Em."

"Yeah," Luz said.

Gus wasn't really interested in romance yet, if he ever would be. To be honest, he thought the whole thing was pretty silly and didn't really get why it had affected Luz so much. But he could see that his friend was distraught, though she tried to hide it, and that made him angry.

"I see them in the illusion homeroom all the time," Gus said. "I could get back at them for you."

Luz shook her head. "Thanks, but I don't want you to do that. I just want to put it all behind me. Can we not talk about it from now on?"

Just as she said that, Amelia, looking around to make sure Boscha wasn’t around, walked up to Luz, Gus, and Willow at the cafeteria.

“Hi, you guys,” Amelia said. After the three said their hellos, she faced Luz and said, “Luz, I was wondering whether you might want to go out on a date with me.”

“Wait, really?!” Luz said.

“Yeah, I thought it might be fun.”

Luz eyed her suspiciously. “Is this some kind of trick?”

“A trick? Of course not!” Amelia said.

“I don’t know. Did Boscha put you up to this or something?”

“No!” Amelia insisted, not adding that someone else had put her up to it.

“Hmm… I don’t know. I just had kind of a… weird experience… and after that, I’m not sure I want to date anyone right away.”

“OK,” Amelia said, turning around.

“Wait,” Luz said. “Can I ask… what is it about me that made you want to date me?”

“Well… um… I really liked how you stood up for Willow against Boscha. That was really cool. And then when you said I did a nice job after I scored a goal… Boscha _never_ congratulates me, and we’re on the same team! And lots of other stuff too. You've made a big impression in this school.”

“Wow, that stuff really impressed you?”

“Yeah,” Amelia said. And it was true.

“Well…" Luz twiddled her thumbs as she considered it. "OK, maybe we could give it a try.”

“Great, are you free after school?”

“Yeah, I don’t have any plans.”

“Perfect! I’ll see you then,” Amelia said before leaving abruptly.

“Wow, Luz,” Gus said. “Looks like you’re getting pretty popular!”

“Yeah…” Willow said more uncertainly. “Luz, are you sure this is a good idea? Just this morning you wanted to date Amity. Maybe you should try asking _her_ out.”

“No way,” Luz said. “I don’t know how you got this idea that Amity has a crush on me, but it just isn't true. _You_ haven’t picked up on anything like that, have you, Gus?”

“Nope,” Gus said, shaking his head as Willow groaned.

“OK," Willow said. "But maybe you should just take a little time to think things over.”

“I’ll be fine, Willow.” Luz didn’t say it out loud, but she thought that this might take her mind off of what had happened between her and Amity.

Meanwhile, Amelia met up with Amity by her locker.

“Hey, Amity, I did what you asked.”

“And did Luz seem cheered up?”

“I think so?”

“Great! So… what did she say?”

“She said yes,” Amelia said.

“Oh…" Amity looked down at her shoes. "Well… that’s good…”

“The thing is, I’m a little nervous. I’ve never dated a human before.”

“Of course, you haven’t,” Amity said. “She’s the only human here in Titan knows how long.”

“Well, I was thinking… are you doing anything after school today?

“No…”

“Then do you think you could come on the date with us? Maybe you could bring someone else and it could be a double date.”

“What? No, I couldn’t do that!”

“Please?”

“I can’t.”

“Why not?”

“Because… because… I just can’t, OK!”

“But I did this as a favor for _you_. Can’t you help me out?”

“I swear I’ll make it up to you somehow, but this is something I just can’t do.”

Amelia sighed. “OK.”

Lunch was almost over, so Amity thought she’d go to the cafeteria and see Luz. As terrible as she was feeling right then, she could at least take some solace in having made Luz happy.

“Amity!” Luz said as she neared.

“Hi, Luz. I just wanted to see how you’re doing.”

“It’s the strangest thing. Just after I was talking to you about… you know… I got asked out by Amelia.”

“And that made you happy, right? Knowing that someone _does_ like you and wanted to ask you out?”

“Yeah, I guess,” Luz answered

Willow wanted to ask Amity whether she was OK. Surely hearing that Luz was dating someone else would be devastating for her. But she wasn't sure how to ask in front of Luz and Gus without possibly embarrassing her.

“The only thing is I’m kind of nervous,” Luz went on. “I've never been on a date before, and I don't know Amelia too well. I was thinking, as long as it’s OK with her, what if you guys came with me? Just this one time.”

“I would, but I have to go to the dentist after school today to get my fangs cleaned,” Willow said.

“I could come,” Gus said. “But I don’t want to go if it’s just going to be the two of you and me.”

“How about you, Amity?” Luz said.

“I don’t know Luz. Won’t you be… uncomfortable with me there? After everything that happened yesterday and this morning?”

“No!” Luz exclaimed, taking hold of Amity’s hands. “I’m always more comfortable with you around. You’re my friend!”

Amity looked into Luz’s eyes and was filled with a warm feeling that she told herself was just happiness at their friendship and nothing else. But she found that she couldn't quite think clearly.

“Well… OK,” Amity said. “If you _really_ want me to, I’ll come.”


	5. Chapter 5

After school, as she waited with Luz and Gus in front of Hexside, Amity wondered why Luz had said yes to Amelia and not to her. First impressions were hard to dislodge. Maybe, deep down, Luz still thought of her as the witch who’d belittled Willow when she was struggling in class and told Luz that she’d never be a real witch. Maybe Luz deserved someone better.

"Thanks again for coming, guys," Luz said.

Before either of them could say anything in response, Amelia came into view.

“Hi!” Luz called out, waving. “Amelia, would you mind if Gus and Amity came along with us?”

“Oh sure!” Amelia said. She was especially happy that Gus, a bona fide human expert, was going to be there in case anything out of the ordinary happened.

“So, what’s the plan?” Luz asked.

“John de Plume has a signing for his latest book!”

“He’s still writing?” Luz asked.

“Yeah, ever since he got cubed, he’s been even better! It’s like he really understands pain now. I can’t wait! I’ve been looking forward to this for a while now.”

“But I haven’t read those books,” Luz said. Neither had Amity nor Gus.

Amelia just ignored Luz and led the way to the bookstore, where John de Plume read an interminable passage in his new squeaky voice. Since it was the latest in a series, Luz was completely lost.

Luz leaned over to Amelia and whispered, “I’m confused, who’s–”

But Amelia angrily shushed her.

Gus was so bored and fidgety that Amity gave him her scroll to play around with. As for Amity, she was too concerned about Luz to be bored herself. The poor girl looked like she wasn’t having any fun at all, not that Amelia seemed to care.

Amity really wanted to give Amelia a piece of her mind. Didn’t she realize how lucky she was to be on a date with Luz? When they’d first set out, Amity had been worried that seeing Luz and Amelia affectionate with each other would be painful. But seeing Luz ignored and miserable was worse.

Amity tapped Luz on her shoulder to get her attention and whispered, “And they say the Azura books are flowery.”

Luz giggled, which made Amity smile for the first time since before all this had started, but then they were shushed by everyone around them.

“Wasn’t that great!” Amelia said once the reading was done.

“I didn’t understand anything he was talking about,” Luz said.

“Let’s get in line to get a signed book!” Amelia said.

“But that line is so long,” Luz said. “It’s going to take hours.”

Amelia got in line, not even acknowledging what Luz had said.

“You know, we could look around the bookstore while Amelia waits in line,” Amity said.

Luz sighed. “No… I’m her date. I should stick with her.”

Amity’s hands clenched into fists as she said, “I’m going to talk to her.”

“No! Amity, it’s OK. Now that the reading is over, I’m sure things will get better.”

Amity sighed and said, “Fine.” After all, what right did she have to get mad at Amelia when she’d been the one to put her up to this?

Amity turned to Gus and said, “Let’s get in line.”

“No, why don’t you two look around the bookstore,” Luz said.

“OK,” Gus said before wandering off, his patience spent.

“But what about you?” Amity said.

“It’s fine. Gus came here as a favor to me. The last thing I want is for him to be bored. Can you please keep him company for me? And this’ll give me a chance to talk to Amelia alone for a bit. Get to know her better.”

“OK,” Amity said. “If that’s what you want.”

Once Amity left to join Gus, Luz turned around to face Amelia, but her supposed date had already struck up a conversation with the person in front of her in line.

“I especially love the seventeenth book,” the witch in front of them said. “That’s when he really started to find his voice.”

Amelia nodded in agreement.

“What happens in the seventeenth book?” Luz asked.

But Amelia ignored her to say, “But it _really_ hit its stride after the twenty-eighth book, didn’t it?”

“Yeah!” the other witch nodded in agreement.

Luz just stood in line silently, her head held low.

Meanwhile, Amity and Gus looked around the bookstore. Amity was used to handling little kids but not kids Gus’s age.

“So, what kinds of books do you like?”

“Murder mysteries!” Gus said excitedly.

“Oh…” Amity said. “I don’t really read many of those.”

“I especially like the ones set in the human world. You won’t _believe_ how many ways there are to kill humans!”

Amity grimaced. This was getting morbid.

“There’s one author I especially love. She knows _so_ much about the human world! I didn’t even know that humans work together with baboons in their factories until I started reading her books. Let’s go over to the mystery section!”

“You wouldn’t be happier with a nice picture book? There’s this new one out about a friendly goose that wants to­–”

“No, let’s get to the murder!” Gus said with a gleam in his eyes that made Amity very uncomfortable.

“OK…” Amity said before walking over with him uneasily.

* * *

Luz stood in line, bored, as Amelia continued to ignore her. She wondered what a date with Amity would’ve been like instead. She never would've left her out like this. Once Amelia finally got her book signed, Luz brightened, hoping that now they could finally spend some time together.

“So, what should we do now?” Luz asked

“Well, it’s getting pretty late,” Amelia said. “Maybe we should call it a night.”

“What? That’s it?”

“What do you mean? We’ve been on this date for hours now.”

“But… but you’ve barely said two words to me this whole time! It’s like you don’t even want to be with me.”

“Well, I was going to go get something to eat with my new friend,” Amelia said, pointing to the witch she’d been talking to in line. “But if you want, you can come.”

“What? Amelia… I don’t understand. This whole date, you’ve been ignoring me, but _you_ asked _me_ out.”

“Yeah, I thought that would cheer you up. But you don’t seem too happy.”

“Cheer me up? What are you talking about?”

“Oh… uh…” Amelia realized she’d let something slip that she shouldn’t have.

“Wait a minute…” Luz placed her forehead in her left hand and closed her eyes for a moment as she considered things. “Did _Amity_ tell you to ask me out? Just to make me feel better?”

Amelia didn’t say anything, and her eyes darted around nervously.

“You never really wanted to date me at all,” Luz said, her voice wavering a little.

“That’s not true! I mean… I wouldn’t have agreed if I’d _hated_ the idea…”

Luz sighed. “You can go hang out with your new friend.”

“Do you want to come?”

“No, I think I’ll just head home.”

“You won’t tell Amity that I told you how she put me up to this, will you?”

“No,” Luz said. “Don’t worry.”

“OK, thanks Luz. Hey, if you _really_ wanted, I _could_ take you out on a date some other time.”

“No,” Luz said, not exactly bowled over by her enthusiasm. “You don’t have to.”

“OK, I’ll see you around.” Amelia began to turn away but stopped herself. “Luz… I’m sorry if you felt left out. It’s just… I get carried away when it comes to John de Plume, and the whole thing kind of happened suddenly, and I’ve never dated a human before–”

“It’s fine,” Luz said.

“You know, all that stuff I said about the grudgby game and how you impressed me, it was all true. Really it was.”

“Thanks,” Luz said glumly before turning away.


	6. Chapter 6

Luz wandered around the bookstore until she found Gus and Amity. As soon as Amity saw her, she could tell that Luz was upset.

“Gus, let’s go,” Amity said.

“But we were just getting to the good part!” Gus said, which made Amity shudder.

Amity stood up to meet Luz as Gus kept reading his book.

“Luz, what’s wrong?”

Then, Luz surprised her with a hug, which of course made her heart race even as she was completely confused and concerned for her.

“I found out that you had Amelia ask me out,” Luz said.

“What?!” Amity glared, thinking about how she’d told Amelia not to let Luz know that.

“Amelia didn’t tell me,” Luz said, intuiting what Amity was thinking. “Don’t be mad at her. I just figured it out myself. Anyway, I know you did it to make me feel better.”

“Luz, are you sad?”

“No! How could I possibly be sad when I have a friend who cares about my feelings as much as you do?”

Amity felt rotten hearing that. And she could tell that Luz was hurt no matter what she said.

“Luz, you’re so good to everyone else. The last thing you deserve is to feel sad.”

“That’s sweet of you, Amity, but don’t feel bad for me. It’s not like any of this is _your_ fault.”

Now Amity felt even worse. She glanced at Gus, who was still engrossed in his book and not paying them a bit of attention.

“Luz… would it make you feel better if you knew that someone really _did_ have a crush on you? And maybe more than a crush?”

“What do you mean?”

Amity braced herself. “Luz… I… I… I think you’re amazing and… and I’ve been wanting to ask you out for a long time. Ever since Grom.”

“Wait… what? That can’t be true.”

“It is.”

“But… I’m so confused. Are you just saying this to make me feel better?”

“No! I swear!”

“But… but if you felt that way, why would you set me up with Amelia?”

“Because I wanted to cheer you up. And since I know you don’t feel the same way about me, I wanted to do it without making you feel weird about our friendship.”

“What?”

“I won’t ask you to date me because I know you don’t want to, but I just hope this makes you feel better. And I hope we can still–”

“But Amity, what makes you think I don’t want to date you?”

“I– wait, what?”

Amity looked at Luz, almost afraid to even dare to hope. “Luz… do you feel the same way about me?”

Luz smiled bashfully. “Well, the truth is… I don’t really know how I feel about you yet. But if you still want to, I thought we could try going out.”

“Really?” Amity said, her heart soaring. “Are… are you sure? You’re not just saying this to make me happy?”

“No! I really want to.”

Amity felt like jumping up and down. “Luz… I… I don’t know what to say! You don’t know how happy you’ve made me!”

“I'm happy too! I guess Willow was right.”

“Huh? Right about what?”

“She said that Ed and Em made that illusion of you yesterday to try to _help_ you. That they might’ve known you had a crush on me, and the illusion was their way of trying to get you to finally tell me.”

Amity’s heart suddenly sank. In her excitement, she’d forgotten all about the lie she’d told Luz about the illusion. She’d really messed things up, more than she’d even realized. But now that everything was perfect, would it be so terrible to leave things the way they were?

“What’s wrong?” Luz asked, noticing that Amity had been silent for a while.

“Well… there’s just one thing…”

“Do you not want to date me?”

“No! I do! More than anything!”

Amity knew she couldn’t just let this lie hang over her. And Luz deserved to know the truth. She’d _always_ deserved that.

“Luz, before you agree to go out with me, there’s something you should know.”

“What?”

Amity was about to tell Luz the truth, but the whole thing was so complicated. Maybe it would be better if she wrote it all down and what she’d been thinking at each step. That way, even if Luz didn’t forgive her for lying, she could at least properly explain that her intentions had never been to hurt her. And hadn’t impulsively telling things to Luz led to trouble so far?

“Actually… I need to write it down. Can I tell you tomorrow?”

Luz’s brow furrowed. “Is everything OK?”

“Yes! It’s nothing you should worry about. I’ll explain everything tomorrow morning.”

“Well… OK…” Luz said. “I’ll take Gus home.”

“Are you sure?”

“Yeah, I’ll see you tomorrow!” Then, Luz turned to Gus. “Ready to go home?”

“OK,” he answered, putting his book away. “I figured out who did it anyway. By the way, Luz, I never knew that humans had vital organs behind their kneecaps. You should really wear kneepads from now on!”

Gus and Luz left the bookstore when they heard two voices call out “Luz!” from the distance. Soon, Ed and Em ran up to them.

“Hey, Luz, we haven’t seen you in a while!” Em said.

“Yeah, where have you been hiding?” Ed said.

Gus immediately glared at them, which took the two by surprise. What had they ever done to him?

Luz didn’t react angrily. After all, everything had worked out. But she couldn’t pretend that they hadn’t hurt her. “You know, that was a pretty rotten prank you two pulled yesterday.”

“You heard about that?” Em said as the two of them chuckled.

“What’s the big deal?” Ed said.

“I think you probably had good intentions,” Luz said. “But you really hurt my feelings.”

“But… why would hiding all the oracle track’s crystal balls hurt your feelings?” Ed asked.

“Yeah, did you have an oracle class that day or something?” Em asked.

“What? No, I mean when you made the illusion of Amity.”

“Huh?” Em said.

“We never made an illusion of Amity last night,” Ed said.

“What? But you must have.”

“Honestly, we have no idea what you’re talking about,” Em said.

“But…” Luz trailed off. She studied the two of them. They looked genuinely confused, and they weren’t the type to lie about the pranks they pulled when confronted.

Luz grappled with the implications of what it would mean if they were telling the truth. Could someone else have made an illusion of Amity and somehow tricked her into thinking Ed and Em had done it? She didn’t think so. But could Amity have really lied to her like that and made her so confused and upset?

“Sorry,” Luz said. “I was… confused about something.” She turned to Gus, and said, “Let’s go home.”

“Is everything OK?” Em asked.

“Yeah, everything’s fine,” Luz said, though she didn’t sound like she meant it.


	7. Chapter 7

Amity was in her room working on her note explaining everything to Luz when Ed and Em came into the house.

“Hey, Mittens!” Ed called out from the hallway.

“What is it?” Amity yelled, annoyed by the interruption.

“Did you tell Luz we made an illusion of you yesterday?” Em asked.

Amity gasped and ran out of her room.

“What did you say?”

“We ran into Luz,” Ed said. “She thought we pulled a prank on her by making an illusion of you.”

Amity felt like her heart had stopped. “What did you tell her?”

“We said we didn’t know what she was talking about,” Em said. “You know, if you tell a lie involving us, you really have to let us know.”

“Yeah,” Ed said. “We could’ve covered for you if we hadn’t been caught off guard.”

“I’ve got to go,” Amity said. Then she blushed and asked, “Did Luz tell you what happened yesterday?”

“No,” Em said.

“Although we can guess…” Ed said in a teasing tone.

Amity groaned but didn’t respond, instead heading over to the Owl House.

Luz came out, and Amity immediately saw that she looked upset, not at all like how she’d looked when they’d last seen each other.

“Luz–” Amity said.

“What are you doing here?” Luz asked.

“I spoke to Ed and Em…” Amity said.

“Oh…” Luz said. “Amity, is what they told me true? Did you lie to me about everything yesterday being an illusion?”

“Well… yeah…” Amity said, not able to meet Luz’s eyes. “But I was going to tell you!”

“That’s easy for you to say now.”

“It’s true, I swear! Remember how I said I needed to tell you something tomorrow? That’s what I was going to tell you. I just wanted to get the words right. Look, I even started writing this note.”

Amity handed Luz the note she’d been working on.

“Dear Luz,” Luz read. “I need to tell you something. When I told you that Ed and Em made an illusion of me the day before yesterday, it wasn’t true. I’m really sorry. I know I handled everything really badly, but I just want you to know that I never meant to hurt your feelings.”

That was as far as Amity had gotten before Ed and Em had come home.

“How do I know you didn’t write this _after_ you talked to Ed and Em to make it _look_ like you were going to tell me the truth tomorrow?” Luz asked.

Amity gasped. That really hurt, knowing that Luz had so little trust in her now. Not that she could blame her.

“I didn’t!” Amity cried out. “Remember how I said I needed to tell you something tomorrow before you agreed to date me? That was before either of us talked to Ed and Em.”

“Well… OK, I believe you,” Luz said. “You, know, you really confused me and hurt my feelings.”

“I know. I’m sorry. But I didn’t mean to. Can I explain?”

Luz thought about how the day before she’d told Amity­– the real Amity, apparently– how she would always do things that got misunderstood to the point that she’d given up on trying to explain herself, and how Amity had told her that she’d always listen to her if that happened again.

“OK,” Luz said. "I'm listening"

“You see, when I came to see you here yesterday, you seemed so uncomfortable,” Amity said. “Even though you said you needed to think, I was sure you were going to say no. And I just wanted things to go back to normal. If I’d known it would hurt your feelings, I never would’ve done it.”

“But wasn’t it obvious that it would?”

“Maybe it should’ve been. But I thought you didn’t have any interest in dating me. I actually thought it would make you feel _better_ to think that none of it was real.”

Luz thought about how unsure she’d been when Amity had first told her about her feelings.

“Well… I guess I can see where you were coming from…” Luz said. “But when you found out that it _did_ hurt my feelings, why would you set me up with Amelia instead of telling me the truth?”

“Because you said the reason you were upset was because you’d been flattered that I had those kinds of feelings towards you, not because you wanted to date me. So, I thought that _anyone_ asking you out would be just as flattering and cheer you up. And… I didn’t want to get rejected… so I got Amelia to do it.”

Luz considered that. That _was_ what she’d told Amity when she’d asked her why she was upset, hiding the fact that she’d been about to say yes to dating her. Amity lied to her first, but she hadn’t been 100% honest either. And she knew from Grom how afraid Amity was of rejection. Luz had to admit that even if she couldn’t agree with what Amity had done, she could at least understand what she'd been thinking every step of the way.

“I know I really messed up,” Amity said. “I don’t expect you to want to date me anymore, but can we still be friends?”

Suddenly, Luz started feeling sorry for Amity, imagining how sad and anxious she must’ve been the last couple of days. “Oh, Amity… we’re still friends.”

Amity breathed a sigh of relief. “Thank you, Luz. Being friends with you is really important to me. It… it changed my life. I know it was wrong, but the reason I lied to you was because I didn’t want to risk anything getting in the way of that.”

“I understand. But if you’d just had a little more confidence that our friendship would be OK no matter how I felt about dating you, then none of this would’ve happened.”

Amity nodded sadly. If she hadn’t been so insecure, not only would their friendship have been fine, the two of them would’ve probably been on a date at that very moment.

“Did I ever do anything to make you feel like you couldn’t count on me as a friend?” Luz asked

Amity shook her head. “No.” Really, it had been just the opposite. “I don’t know, it’s been so long since I’ve had a friend I could really depend on. Maybe that made it hard for me to fully believe it.”

Luz smiled. “Well, I hope you believe it now. As long as you don’t do something like this again.”

“I won’t,” Amity said.

After an awkward pause, Luz said, “Well… I guess I should go inside. I’ll see you tomorrow.”

Amity nodded and started heading back to Blight manor. She was just glad that everything was out in the open and that Luz was still willing to be her friend. That was the important thing. The fact that Luz had actually wanted to date her only for her to ruin her chances of that didn’t bother her. Not at all. Not one bit.


	8. Chapter 8

The next day, as Luz was getting her things from her locker, Willow came up to her.

“Hi, Luz,” she said. “Amity told me about what happened.”

“She did?” Luz said, surprised.

“Yeah. How are you feeling? Are you upset with her?”

“I was,” Luz said. “But we talked about it, and I forgave her.”

“That’s really understanding of you. I was pretty angry with her when she first told me what happened, but she seemed so remorseful that it was kind of hard to stay that way. That’s easy for _me_ to say, though.”

Luz nodded. “You know, if I’d said yes to Amity right away, none of this would’ve happened.”

“But you shouldn't blame yourself for that. You had every right to think things over and figure out how you felt about things.”

“Yeah, I know.”

“Anyway, Amity asked me to give you this.” Willow handed Luz a little note, which she opened.

“Dear Luz,” she read. “I’m really sorry for everything. I figured you might need some space after everything that’s happened, so I’ll stay away from you until you’re ready to spend time with me again. Also, please read this alone and not out loud in front of Willow– oh, whoops!” Luz quickly stuffed the note into her pocket.

“In your defense, she probably should’ve written that part first,” Willow said.

Luz groaned. “She’s so frustrating! I never said I needed space. I’m going to go talk to her.”

As she was about to walk away, Luz paused and asked, “Willow, do you think it’s completely unreasonable of me to still be kind of curious about what dating Amity would be like?”

Willow considered that. “I don’t think it’s unreasonable if that’s what you want. Just as long as you think you can trust her again.”

Luz nodded and left for Amity’s locker. When Amity spotted her, she jumped.

“Luz! I wasn’t expecting you. Did you get my note?”

“Yes. Amity, if I needed space, I would’ve told you.”

Amity looked at the ground and didn’t say anything.

“Amity… are you the one who needs space?”

After a moment, Amity answered, “No. I want to spend time with you. But… if I seem at all… sad or disappointed with things, I don’t want that to make you… I don’t know… feel weird about things between us or think it means I don't want to be friends."

“I won’t! Things will be OK. Maybe they won’t go back to normal right away, but before you know it, it’ll be like none of this ever happened.”

“You really think so?” Amity asked.

“Yeah. How about we do something together after school?”

“Well… OK,” Amity said.

After school, Amity and Luz went over to the bookstore, the same bookstore where they’d gone for that disastrous date with Amelia, and browsed the shelves. Amity was doing her best to not seem at all unhappy about the state of things between them while also not doing anything to make it seem like she was feeling anything towards Luz other than friendship.

Luz could tell that Amity was feeling uneasy. She took a book off a shelf and put it on her head.

“Hey,” Luz said. “Did your parents ever make you practice balancing books on your head?”

“No. Why? Is that something humans do?”

“No. Or maybe they used to? It’s the kind of thing I’ve seen in movies. They make girls do it to practice poise.” Luz didn’t mention that she’d asked because based on those movies Amity’s family seemed like the type to make their daughters do that kind of thing.

“You’re pretty good at that,” Amity said.

“Thanks! But you’re supposed to walk with them.”

Luz took a few slow steps, but before long the book fell off.

“Here, you give it a try,” Luz said, handing Amity the book.

“Oh… I don’t know. I don’t think I’d be good at it.”

“I bet you would. You’re so graceful.”

Amity blushed. Then, she looked around. “I just don’t want to make a scene.”

“Well, we could–”

Luz stopped herself. She’d been about to say that they could try it in Amity’s little room in the library, but she realized the two of them being there alone after what happened the last time they’d been there might be fraught.

“We could what?” Amity said.

“We could… um… find a spot without so many people.”

They looked around and found a secluded area. Amity tried balancing the book on her head and managed to keep it there while walking slowly for a while.

“Hey, I’m doing it!” Amity said, smiling.

“Nice! But in the movies, they do it with a whole pile of books.”

“Really?” Amity said.

Luz put three more books on Amity’s head. Amity took a tentative step, and the books stayed on. Amity smiled only for the books to all fall off a second later.

Amity and Luz both laughed.

“Guess I’m not that graceful after all,” Amity said.

“Hey, you did better than I did,” Luz said.

The two tried balancing books a little longer, and soon Amity was feeling a lot better. She had to remind herself that they were just hanging out as friends and that this wasn’t a date. But things really weren’t that weird between them, not as much as she’d feared they would be.

Luz was having a good time too, and she was glad that Amity seemed happier. She thought about what Willow had said earlier about trusting Amity. Did she feel like she could trust her? It had only been the day before when Amity had lied to her. But after talking to her, Luz really did feel like she understood Amity and that she wouldn’t do something like that again.

Luz was also wondering what it was about her that Amity liked so much. She realized that with everything that had gone on, she’d never gotten a chance to find out. A lot of the confusion between the two of them was because she’d been so ready to believe that Amity couldn’t possibly have those kinds of feelings towards her. And even now she was having a hard time believing it.

After browsing a little more, Amity and Luz left the bookstore when Luz caught Amity looking sad.

“Everything OK?” Luz said.

“Yeah, it’s just… I wish I could do something for you. To make up for… you know… everything that happened yesterday.”

“You don’t need to do anything for me, Amity,” Luz said. “I forgive you. Really. The only thing you need to do is not to do something like that again.”

“I never would.”

“I know. I believe you.”

“But I feel like I should do something more.”

Luz was about to reassure her again that she didn’t need to, but then paused for a moment. “Actually, Amity, there’s one thing you could do for me… but I’m worried it might make you feel bad.”

“Whatever it is, I’ll do it.”

“Well… OK. I guess I’m curious what it is that you like about me.”

Amity frowned. Going over all the things she loved about Luz knowing that they couldn’t be together was going to be painful.

Luz noticed the way she looked and said, “Sorry! I’m so insensitive. I should’ve never asked that. Let’s just pretend I never asked it.”

“No, if you want to know, I’ll tell you.”

“Are you sure?”

“Yeah. It’s just… it’ll be better if I write it down. Can I give it to you tomorrow?”

“Oh no,” Luz said. “I can’t ask you to do that.”

Amity saw how disappointed Luz looked. And then it hit her. She didn’t need to collect her thoughts and write them down. She’d never needed to. It had always just been a way to put off telling Luz how she felt because she was afraid of what would happen. She knew all the reasons she’d fallen for Luz. She knew them backwards and forwards.

And everything that had gone wrong the past two days hadn’t been caused by her being too impulsive in telling Luz things or not getting her words quite right. It had been from her not being honest, whether through outright deceit or just avoidance.

“Wait!” Amity said. “I can tell you.”

“You don’t have to.”

“No, I want to. I really do. There are so many things. You were always kind to me, even when I was nothing but mean to you. Like at the library, when you tried to rescue me from Otabin even after I called you a bully–”

“But anyone would’ve done that,” Luz interrupted. “That’s nothing so great.”

“Of course, it is! And then you lent me the Azura book–”

“But that was nothing!”

“Luz, back then I _never_ would’ve done that for someone who’d treated me the way I treated you. Or at the covention. I was so cruel to you–”

“Oh, you weren’t _so_ bad,” Luz.

“I was! I said you would never become a witch and even tried to stop you from learning magic. But even after I said that, when I got humiliated at the covention, you came out to help me. No one else would’ve done that. And that’s also when you showed me that I was wrong and that you _could_ do magic. That’s another thing. You’re so creative, with your writing and your drawing. It’s no wonder you found a new way to do magic unlike anyone else. And you’ve done so many incredible things with magic since then. Like with the slitherbeast–”

“The slitherbeast? But I really messed up! That was all my fault to begin with.”

“I know, but even so, when I went to face the slitherbeast alone, I was so scared. And I had no idea what to do. Without you there, I don’t think I could’ve done it. And that showed me how determined you are to fix your mistakes.”

“But… but those are mistakes _I_ made in the first place. Just fixing them, that’s not an… attractive quality…”

“Sure, it is! Everyone makes mistakes, but not everyone will go so far to fix them as you will. And then you rescued me from the greater basilisk. You were like a hero from one of my books! I think that’s when I first realized how I felt about you. And after that, you convinced Principal Bump to let those kids study how they wanted. That’s another thing. You’re always willing to stand up for people against injustice. Or bullies. Like with Boscha when she was picking on Willow. You even stood up to _me_ when someone needed to do it.”

“But… you liked that?”

“Well… I can’t say I liked it at the time. But now I know it needed to be done. And you made me a better person by doing it. And then there was the whole thing with Willow. I never would’ve been able to fix that without you. And I felt so much better finally telling Willow the truth and patching things up with her. And, of course, there was our big night at Grom. I could’ve never defeated Grom without you.”

“But _you_ rescued _me_ from Grom.”

“No, after Grom turned into my worst fear, I was crushed! I would’ve never been able to do anything after that if you hadn’t been there for me. And that dance… I know we were just dancing as friends, but… I thought it was so romantic… And there’s a lot of other stuff too! You’re funny and energetic and cheerful and… and cute…” Amity blushed saying that last part.

There was one thing Amity wanted to add, but it was kind of embarrassing. Would it be too over-the-top? But she figured she might as well not hold anything back at this point. “Luz, the question isn’t why I fell for you; it’s how could I _not_ fall for you.”

Amity’s face turned red after saying that. But she was glad to finally say everything she'd been feeling, even if she knew it wouldn't result in the two of them getting together.

Luz was blushing too. And she was overwhelmed.

“That’s… that’s really how you see me?” Luz asked.

“Yeah,” Amity said. “I mean… that’s how you _are_.”

Luz was stunned. Then, she leaned over and kissed Amity on the cheek.

Now Amity was the one who was stunned. “What… I…”

“I’m sorry,” Luz said. “Was that out of line? I just thought since this all started when _you_ kissed _me_ on the cheek it would be kind of… poetic or something if I did that. Oh, that was stupid. I should’ve–”

“Luz… I’m… confused…”

“Amity, I know a lot’s happened between us the past couple of days, but if you still want to, I’d like to try dating.”

“Wait, really? Even after what I did yesterday?”

“Yeah. I know you didn’t want to hurt me. And I don’t think you’d ever do anything like that again. And remember what you just said about mistakes?”

“But… I don’t want you to do this just to make me happy.”

“I’m not! And it’s not just because of all those nice things you just said about me either. I think you’re really great, Amity.”

“Really?” Amity hadn’t been feeling that way about herself lately.

“Yeah! I know you just said that _I_ made you a better person, but that’s not true! I may have helped, but you did that yourself. And it took a lot of courage for you to patch things up with Willow after what your parents did, and to stand up to Boscha. And facing Otabin and the slitherbeast and Grom together with you was a big deal for me too. And… I’m sorry, I can’t explain things as well as you did just now. Is that OK? The main thing is… I just like spending time with you.”

“Luz… I… I can’t tell you how happy this makes me. And not everyone would be able to forgive me like you can. I’ll make sure you never regret it.”

Amity was practically skipping as she and Luz walked off together. Luz laughed.

“What?” Amity said, blushing.

“Nothing. It’s just I’ve never seen you quite like this before.”

Amity figured that stood to reason. After all, she’d never _felt_ quite like this before.

“You’re really sure about this, Luz?” Amity asked.

“Yeah. Why do you keep asking?”

“It’s just… after everything that's happened, it’s kind of hard for me to believe this is real.”

“Don’t worry. I’m not an illusion.”

Amity winced.

“Sorry,” Luz said. “Too soon?”

“It’s OK,” Amity said. “I probably deserved that.”

And the two of them walked off together.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I've never written anything like this before, so I hope it turned out OK. Happy holidays! Thanks for reading!


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